The graduate program in Philosophy offers students the opportunity to study the history of philosophy and contemporary philosophy and to work with some of the leading scholars in:
- Contemporary Continental Thought
- German Idealism
- Social and Political Theory
- History of Philosophy and Ethics
- Feminist Philosophy
- Psychoanalytic Thought
- Latin American Philosophy
The program provides students with a rigorous course of graduate seminars in these and other areas of philosophy, as well as regular faculty consultation and guidance at every stage of the program.
The department offers the PhD in philosophy. Though students may enter the program with a BA or an MA, they all follow the same MA/PhD path.
Program Structure
Most graduate courses are taught in a series of streams organized each year under unifying titles, such as German Idealism, Ethics, Society and Politics, or Contemporary French Philosophy. These are all research courses, with no distinction being made between MA and PhD course levels, and a student does not technically have to follow the stream from beginning to end.
In their first two years in the program, students serve as Teaching Assistants. In their third through sixth year in the program, students serve as Teaching Fellows. In this role, students are expected to teach up to a maximum of four courses per academic year.
After the first year of course work is complete, students are allowed to enroll for up to three independent studies of any kind toward their degree. These courses can be any combination of language courses, independent studies in the department or in other departments at DePaul, or courses in other doctoral programs at other local universities.
Program Length
Students take a total of 28 courses (or 112 credit hours), usually over the course of four years, whether they are entering with a BA or an MA. They then complete the degree by writing and defending a dissertation, normally in their fourth through sixth years in the program.
Program Highlights
The department offers courses, seminars, mini-courses, directed research, and colloquia to stimulate students’ investigation of various philosophies and philosophical problems.
Each student is required to pass two competency exams in languages pertinent to their research. In support of this requirement, the department holds informal reading groups (in French, German, Greek, and Latin) that meet regularly and emphasize reading philosophical texts in their original languages. In addition, in the spring of the second year, every student is permitted to travel abroad in order to engage in serious and immersed language study in another country and develop academic connections and, oftentimes, contact a faculty host for an eventual dissertation research and writing fellowship, such as the Chateaubriand, DAAD, or Fulbright. Finally, we also sponsor an exclusive exchange program with the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris every year, where we send a second-year student from our program to study there, while we host an ENS student here in Chicago.
Because the majority of our graduates will go on to jobs in academia, we offer a carefully designed teaching practicum to support our students as they transition from serving as a Teaching Assistant, in their first two years in the program, to being a Teaching Fellow, who designs and offers their own undergraduate classes, in their third through sixth years.
Finally, there is a student-organized forum, the Frings Lecture Series, in which students present papers and discuss their work with their fellow graduate students and the graduate students also organize and host an annual national conference for graduate students each year.
Program Participants
The program is designed primarily for:
- Students on their way to careers in academia
Certificate Options
The Philosophy PhD may also be supplemented with a number of graduate certificates:
- Bioethics
- Business Ethics
- Women’s and Gender Studies
- Teaching and Learning Certificate
| Program Requirements | Quarter Hours |
|---|---|
| Core Requirements | 112 |
| Total hours required | 112 |
Learning Outcomes
Students will be able to:
- Critically discuss philosophical issues (via well-grounded arguments) and questions from the perspectives of multiple methods, traditions, and historical contexts.
- Evaluate philosophical issues, questions, and problems critically and analytically.
- Write an articulate and well-ordered essay presenting philosophical positions in a way that addresses philosophical issues and questions.
- Formulate and evaluate their own understanding of a diverse range of philosophical problems, in both writing and discussion.
- Integrate a critical understanding of central philosophical ideas from the history of philosophy, broadly construed to include more than the Western tradition.
- Read and integrate into their research relevant primary and secondary texts from the history of philosophy in their original language.
- Produce a substantial piece of research (thesis or dissertation) that makes an original contribution to the field of philosophy and/or exhibits a comprehensive grasp of the relevant scholarship on a given question, text, or figure.
Degree Requirements
A minimum of 112 quarter hours of graduate level course work (28 courses) is required for the PhD. This includes 104 quarter hours of course work (26 courses), 4 quarter hours of PHL 697 (Graduate Teaching Practicum), and 4 quarter hours of PHL 699 (Dissertation Research).
Of the 112 quarter hours (28 courses) required for the PhD, 32 quarter hours (8 courses) must be taken in accordance with the following distribution requirements:
- Four History of Western Philosophy Courses
- Two in Ancient or Medieval: 8 quarter hours
- Two in Modern or Nineteenth Century: 8 quarter hours
- Two Contemporary European Philosophy Courses: 8 quarter hours
- Two Normative Philosophy Courses: 8 quarter hours
Course Distribution List
History of Western Philosophy - Ancient or Medieval
| Course | Title | Quarter Hours |
|---|---|---|
| SPECIAL TOPICS IN TRADITIONAL PHILOSOPHERS | ||
| PLATO I | ||
| PLATO II | ||
| ARISTOTLE I | ||
| ARISTOTLE II | ||
| AUGUSTINE | ||
| AQUINAS | ||
| SPECIAL TOPICS IN THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY |
History of Western Philosophy - Modern or Nineteenth Century
| Course | Title | Quarter Hours |
|---|---|---|
| SPECIAL TOPICS IN TRADITIONAL PHILOSOPHERS | ||
| HOBBES | ||
| DESCARTES | ||
| LOCKE | ||
| LEIBNIZ | ||
| SPINOZA | ||
| ROUSSEAU | ||
| HUME | ||
| SPECIAL TOPICS IN THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY | ||
| KANT I | ||
| KANT II | ||
| KANT III | ||
| HEGEL I | ||
| HEGEL II | ||
| HOLDERLIN | ||
| SCHELLING | ||
| MARX I | ||
| MARX II | ||
| NIETZSCHE |
Contemporary European Philosophy
| Course | Title | Quarter Hours |
|---|---|---|
| PHILOSOPHY OF WITTGENSTEIN | ||
| HUSSERL I | ||
| HUSSERL II | ||
| HEIDEGGER I | ||
| HEIDEGGER II | ||
| HEIDEGGER III | ||
| TOPICS IN CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY | ||
| FOUCAULT | ||
| THE PHILOSOPHY OF GABRIEL MARCEL | ||
| LYOTARD | ||
| MERLEAU-PONTY I | ||
| MERLEAU-PONTY II | ||
| SARTRE I | ||
| SARTRE II | ||
| DERRIDA I | ||
| DERRIDA II | ||
| RICOEUR | ||
| METAPHOR AND POETIC LANGUAGE | ||
| READING LEVINAS I | ||
| READING LEVINAS II | ||
| PHILOSOPHY, LITERATURE, COMMUNITY | ||
| TRENDS IN CONTEMPORARY FRENCH PHILOSOPHY |
Normative Philosophy
| Course | Title | Quarter Hours |
|---|---|---|
| MEDICAL LEGAL ETHICS | ||
| SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY | ||
| PHILOSOPHY, ETHICS, AND ECONOMICS | ||
| CRITICAL RACE THEORY | ||
| SEMINAR ON AESTHETICS | ||
| SEMINAR ON CONTEMPORARY PROBLEMS | ||
| PROBLEMS IN ETHICS | ||
| SEMINAR ON THE CONTINENTAL TRADITION IN ETHICS | ||
| TOPICS IN BUSINESS ETHICS | ||
| SEMINAR ON SOCIAL AND POLITICAL THOUGHT | ||
| TOPICS IN SOCIAL AND POLITICAL THOUGHT | ||
| SEMINAR IN FEMINIST ETHICS | ||
| TOPICS IN FEMINIST THEORY |
Additional Requirements
Annual Reviews
The Graduate Affairs Committee conducts annual formal reviews of each student’s progress toward the doctoral degree. The purpose of the review session is to discuss the student’s experience in the program thus far, address any questions or concerns that they might have, and assess how well they are meeting the expectations relevant to their year in the program.
As part of the review process, students are required to submit a self-evaluation of their progress in the program, teaching evaluations (when serving as a Teaching Fellow) and, until all their course work is completed (typically, through their fourth year in the program), students are also required to submit two file papers for review. These papers are read by a second member of the faculty who assesses whether the papers meet relevant standards of graduate level work and thus indicate appropriate progress in the program for each student.
Students deemed not to be making satisfactory progress may be placed on probation or, where the circumstances in the judgment of the Graduate Affairs Committee warrant, the student may be required to leave the doctoral program.
Foreign Languages Requirement
The Philosophy Department places a very high priority on working with texts in original languages, rather than translations. For doctoral students, competence in two languages of research is thus required. Typically, these are Greek, Latin, French, or German. Competence in other languages may be used to fulfill the language requirements if it is deemed appropriate to the research undertaken by the student. In the latter case, prior to beginning preparation to pass a language requirement (by either of the two paths outlined below), the student must submit a short paragraph to the Director of Graduate Studies, to be reviewed by the Graduate Affairs Committee, outlining why the language in question will be important to the student’s future research.
Each student must complete the requirement for one language before scheduling a Dissertation Proposal Defense, and they must complete the requirement for a second language before scheduling a Dissertation Defense.
There are two ways in which students can complete the Foreign Languages requirement:
- Student may pass a departmentally administered Language Competency Exam, which are offered just before the start of every quarter. This usually involves asking the student to translate a selection from a philosophical text in the original language.
- Students may, alternatively, complete a certain number of classes in the Modern Languages Department, maintaining a B+ average each quarter. For ancient languages, students must take through the first year. For modern languages, students must take through year two.
Dissertation
Students must form a dissertation committee and submit and defend a dissertation proposal before that committee. Each student must then submit a dissertation and successfully defend it before their dissertation committee.
The dissertation is a thesis, approximately 200-275 pages (60,000-85,500 words) in length, including scholarly apparatus. The precise topic, structure, and length of the dissertation is to be determined in consultation with the dissertation Director and the other members of the dissertation committee.
Optional Certificates
Graduate Certificate in Bioethics
The Graduate Certificate in Bioethics is an option for doctoral candidates in Philosophy who want (a) to cultivate their ability to engage in critical analysis of bioethical issues, and (b) to train to teach bioethics, biomedical ethics, or medical ethics to a variety of different kinds of students.
The Certificate requirements are as follows:
Course Requirements:
A minimum of 16 quarter hours including:
| Course | Title | Quarter Hours |
|---|---|---|
| PHL 529 | THE PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATIONS OF BIOETHICS | 4 |
| Select three other approved elective courses within the DePaul Philosophy Department’s graduate offerings. The elective can be selected from the following courses: | 12 | |
| ARISTOTLE II | ||
| AQUINAS | ||
| KANT II | ||
| MARX I | ||
or PHL 521 | MARX II | |
| SEMINAR ON THE CONTINENTAL TRADITION IN ETHICS | ||
| SEMINAR ON SOCIAL AND POLITICAL THOUGHT | ||
| SEMINAR IN FEMINIST ETHICS | ||
| TOPICS IN FEMINIST THEORY | ||
Training/Teaching Requirements
- Students must participate in the Biomedical Ethics Training Program or serve as a Teaching Assistant for PHL 229 BIOMEDICAL ETHICS with a tenured or tenure-line faculty member.
- Upon completion of the training program or assistantship, students must teach at least two sections of Biomedical Ethics (PHL 229).
Applicants apply for the Certificate by sending a letter of intent to the Director of Graduate Studies. Applicants agree to make the above required courses part of their program of study for the Ph.D and must maintain a B average in all Certificate courses.
Graduate Certificate in Business Ethics
The Graduate Certificate in Business Ethics is an option for doctoral students in Philosophy who want to gain a competency in business ethics, qualifying them to teach undergraduate and MBA courses in that subject. This Certificate does not require a dissertation in applied ethics. Rather it is designed to give students, regardless of their area of specialization, a strong background in business ethics so that they will be competent and competitive in the academic market, as well as comfortable teaching business ethics both at DePaul and in their academic careers.
A minimum of 16 quarter hours including:
| Course | Title | Quarter Hours |
|---|---|---|
| PHL 527 | PHILOSOPHY, ETHICS, AND ECONOMICS | 4 |
| or PHL 640 | PROBLEMS IN ETHICS | |
| MGT 500 | LEADING EFFECTIVE AND ETHICAL ORGANIZATIONS (or another graduate level course in Commerce approved by the Certificate Chair) | 4 |
| PHL 641 | SEMINAR ON THE CONTINENTAL TRADITION IN ETHICS | 4 |
| Select one other approved elective course within the DePaul Philosophy Department’s graduate offerings. The elective can be selected from the following courses: | 4 | |
| LOCKE | ||
| ROUSSEAU | ||
| MARX I | ||
or PHL 521 | MARX II | |
| FOUCAULT | ||
| TOPICS IN BUSINESS ETHICS | ||
| SEMINAR ON SOCIAL AND POLITICAL THOUGHT | ||
Other Requirements
- Students will be required to teach two Business Ethics courses (this could be in the Department of Philosophy, the Religious Studies Department or in a Management Department at DePaul or in other area universities.) Given that many PhD students in Philosophy are required to teach, this is not always an additional teaching requirement.
- Attend and participate in at least one professional conference or complete an internship in applied ethics. In terms of Conferences, students will have to present a paper at the annual meeting of the Society for Business Ethics or the annual Vincentian Conference on Business Ethics. (Expenses will be covered by the Institute for Business and Professional Ethics.) A publishable paper would be the optimal goal. In terms of internships, such opportunities will have to be directly related to Business Ethics, Sustainability or Societal Justice. This will be approved by the Certificate Chair in consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies.
Applicants can apply by sending a letter of intent to the Certificate Chair and the Director of Graduate Studies. Applicants must have at least a B average and will agree to make the above required courses as part of their program of study for the PhD.
Certificate in Women’s and Gender Studies
The Women’s and Gender Studies Graduate Certificate Program at DePaul University is offered by the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies and it is available to students in the doctoral program in the Department of Philosophy.
The Program’s requirements are:
- WGS 400 FEMINIST THEORIES
- Three additional graduate-level elective courses approved by Women’s and Gender Studies. The student should petition for approval for courses from the WGS Director of Graduate Studies.
It is highly recommended that students take the foundational course, WGS 400, prior to the other three required WGS electives. The elective courses may be taken from the Women’s and Gender Studies offerings and/or from courses in other departments and programs in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences that have been approved by the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies, but all three elective courses cannot be from one department.
Student Handbook
Probation, Dismissal, and Readmission
The Graduate Affairs Committee conducts annual formal reviews of each student’s progress toward the doctoral degree. Students deemed not to be making satisfactory progress may be placed on probation or, where the circumstances in the judgment of the Graduate Affairs Committee warrant, the student may be required to leave the doctoral program. In these cases, students may petition the Graduate Affairs Committee for readmission to the program.
Residency Requirement
Three consecutive quarters of full-time residence, i.e., registration for eight credit hours each quarter.
Time Limitations
Students are expected to defend their dissertation proposals and become ABD by the end of their fourth year, but by no later than the end of their sixth year. Students are expected to submit and successfully defend their dissertations by the end of their sixth year, but by no later than the end of their tenth year after entering the program.